Chester Sam­bra­no

Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School over­came the chal­lenge of 11 oth­er schools from around the coun­try to re­tain its ti­tle as the 2020 Na­tion­al Schools Panora­ma cham­pi­ons in the pri­ma­ry school cat­e­go­ry.

The com­pe­ti­tion was held at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah yes­ter­day.

Guaico led from the front with a ren­di­tion of “Sa­van­nah Grass” by Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller.

The boys from the East played in po­si­tion 10 and gained loud cheers from the Grand Stand crowd.

When it was all said and done Guaico emerged with 283 points, four away from sec­ond place St Mar­garet’s Boys’ AC Pri­ma­ry School.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing the vic­to­ry the school’s prin­ci­pal In­di­ra Ram­baran-Mo­hammed said, “We were ec­sta­t­ic be­cause we won last year and we were hop­ing to do it again this year. We were over joyed. The chil­dren are in Sev­enth Heav­en.”

She added that be­fore the per­for­mance she told the pupils, “You all have worked hard, you all did well in the pre­lims. You all can do this, but more than any­thing else go out there and en­joy your­self.”

Ram­baran-Mo­hammed said there will be cel­e­bra­tions at the school to­day.

In the sec­ondary schools cat­e­go­ry, Bish­ops Anstey Sec­ondary School and Trin­i­ty Col­lege East Sec­ondary School emerged as the 2020 Na­tion­al Schools Panora­ma cham­pi­ons.

The merged broth­er and sis­ter schools fought of fierce com­pe­ti­tion from nine oth­er sec­ondary schools to place 1st with 277 points. Their song of choice was “This is the Place” sang by Patrice Roberts.

Mean­while, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­ster An­tho­ny Gar­cia has ex­pressed the com­mit­ment to have pan re­main a key part of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem in this coun­try.

The min­ster de­liv­ered an ad­dress at the start of the com­pe­ti­tion.

He not­ed that the an­them was played by sev­er­al chil­dren be­long­ing to var­i­ous Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion (EC­CE) Cen­tres.

He then com­ment­ed that the na­tion­al in­stru­ment re­mains a crit­i­cal part of the school sys­tem.

Gar­cia said, “It would start at the low­est lev­el; at the EC­CE Cen­tres and we are com­mit­ted to en­sure that through­out the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem pan re­mains alive.”

The min­is­ter al­so de­scribed the hid­den cur­ricu­lum as very im­por­tant.

He said, “The el­e­ments of com­radery, the el­e­ments of work­ing to­geth­er, of com­mit­ment, of dis­ci­pline; these are things that the hid­den cur­ricu­lum would teach us and would teach our chil­dren and that is of ex­treme im­por­tance.”

Gar­cia con­grat­u­lat­ed all the par­tic­i­pants, teach­ers, par­ents, mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er stake­hold­ers for mak­ing the com­pe­ti­tion pos­si­ble